Anne Bruce Spar is looking for new partnership opportunities after Woolworths abandoned plans to roll out concessions to its local stores and axed trials in its General Stores. Spar opened concessions in 19 Woolworth's General Stores at the start of the year and Woolworths said it was keen to trial the concept in its Local stores, but there has been a questionmark over their future since May when Woolworths said it was not going to roll out the c-store format. Woolworths confirmed this week that the partnership was off and all Spar PoS material would be out of Woolworths "sooner rather than later". A spokeswoman said: "We have decided to discontinue the Spar trial. At the end of the day customers do not want to buy food from Woolworths, and that's what research has been telling us throughout the trial period." She said all WGS would be re-absorbed into Woolworths by October at the latest, and Woolworths was already finalising details of its last Spar delivery. Spar had hoped to open concessions in at least 50 Woolworth's Local stores and to strike a deal for concessions at Woolworth's Big W out of town hypermarket format. Spar retail director Steve Blackmore said: "We have invested a fair amount of time and money in the Woolworths project, but all is not lost. We have put a seamless system together, and we are in good stead to develop similar projects with other retailers and outlets in the future." He said Spar would not now be pursuing a supply contract for the 14 Woolworths Big W stores. He said: "Big W was only of interest to us on the back of Woolworths General Stores." Spar UK md Jerry Marwood said: "The partnership was only a workable option if the business was to be one of scale. Even within the short time of the trial I believe Spar has demonstrated it is the c-store organisation best qualified to enter into such partnerships." {{NEWS }}

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